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Million Dollar Man visits Princess Elizabeth students

Former WWF wrestler Ted DiBiase shows Princess Elizabeth Public School student BJ Lewis a few wrestling moves. The Million Dollar Man visited the school Thursday to share his message of anti-bullying and making good choices in life. (SARAH FERGUSON/Tribune Staff)

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The Million Dollar Man has a valuable message to share with youngsters.

Ted DiBiase, the former World Wrestling Federation icon who was inducted into its hall of fame, visited Princess Elizabeth Elementary School Thursday to talk about succeeding in life and how to make “the right choices.”

“We can’t choose our circumstances but we can choose what we do with them,” said DiBiase, who’s appearing at this weekend’s Comic Con in Niagara Falls.

At age 15, DiBiase suffered a significant loss in his life when his father, Iron Mike DiBiase, died of a heart attack. DiBiase said his mom moved him and his brother to a small “wind-blown town” in Arizona called Willcox.

It was there that DiBiase said he was exposed to youths who drank, smoked, partied and succumbed to peer pressure.

DiBiase, dodged that crowd, wanting to follow in his father’s footsteps as a professional wrestler, so he worked hard in school and trained hard in the gym.

Despite what his peers told him, that he wouldn’t make it to school on a football scholarship and he’d never be a professional wrestler, DiBiase persevered.

He did receive a scholarship to University of Arizona, and he later went on to become a WWF legend.

DiBiase attributed his success to not giving in to peer pressure and to standing up to bullies.

“I didn’t have my first drink in high school, I didn’t do drugs and I didn’t follow the crowd,” he said. “It wasn’t easy.”

What DiBiase said he hoped to do by speaking with the students was to encourage them “to make smart choices.”

“Listen to your hearts, chase after your dreams and you can be whatever you want to be,” he said.